


Familiar Shelter

by Destielshipper4Cas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Cat Castiel, Familiar Castiel, Fluff, M/M, Secret Identity, Strangers to Lovers, Witch Dean Winchester, Witch's Familiar Castiel (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23431066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destielshipper4Cas/pseuds/Destielshipper4Cas
Summary: In a world where witches are supposed to stay away from familiars, Castiel runs a secret ‘familiar shelter’ to put witches in need in contact with familiars who can help them.When none of his familiars are free to help a new witch in town, Cas takes it upon himself to help the handsome stranger out. Except helping Dean is not as easy as he’d thought when he doesn’t even seem to realize that Cas is anything other than a cat.⁂During the day, Dean keeps going back to the animal shelter to walk the dogs. (Because they need help and Dean is a nice guy, not because of the cute owner who keeps blushing so prettily when Dean is flirting with him.)At night, this strange cat keeps bothering him. How does it keep getting in and out of his house anyway?
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 321
Kudos: 1544





	1. Chapter 1

The days leading up to Halloween were always especially stressful at the animal shelter. Normally, they didn’t get a witch for _months_. But as Halloween approached, lots of witches needed help, and the magic pull was so strong that they came from far away, like moths to a flame.

Cas, like all familiars, could tell when he was in the presence of a witch—it wasn’t like they needed a secret handshake or anything. Although, they _did_ have to keep what they were doing a secret. After all, cooperation between witches and familiars was forbidden since people were scared of witches becoming too powerful.

Of course, what humans didn’t realize was that sometimes, a witch and a familiar just needed each other. Not because they were power-hungry and wanted to take over the world, but because their magic was out of balance and they needed help to keep it in check. Yin and yang and all that.

Hence, when Cas had opened the animal shelter, he had come up with the idea to use it as a cover to bring witches and familiars together when they were in need of help.

They had seven familiars working at the shelter, which was more than enough to get them by from December through September. But now, on October 30th, all of his familiars were busy with witch-helping duties through the end of November.

Of course, that’s when yet _another_ witch came by the animal shelter. One that hadn’t been in before, so Cas assumed he had to be from further away or had to have moved here only recently. After all, Cas knew all the local witches by now.

“Hey there.” The witch smiled at him brightly, his aura so fascinating that Cas kept staring at it before he realized he was supposed to look into his eyes and—whoa! Those eyes were something else.

“I’m looking for a dog for my brother,” the witch continued while all Cas could do was gape at him.

“Dog?” he repeated dumbly.

“You do have dogs here, right?”

Finally, Cas cleared his throat, giving his brain time to come back online. “Yes. Yes, of course. Follow me, please.”

It had been a while since he had worked with a witch. That had to be the reason for his awkward blundering. As the owner of the animal shelter and the supervisor of the familiars, his task was mostly to delegate, but since he was responsible for the shelter, he hardly ever helped a witch himself. He sent out Charlie or Samandriel or Rowena instead.

Maybe his own familiar was getting lonely. It wasn’t just witches who needed familiars from time to time—it worked the other way around too.

There was only a tiny trace of magical residue Cas could feel coming from the witch. He was either not a very powerful witch or it was way past time for him to seek help.

“So, who’s this?” the witch asked.

Cas hadn’t even realized that his feet had brought him to the dogs on autopilot.

He told the witch the stories of some of the dogs who were desperately in need of a loving home (which, let’s face it, were most of them). While his mouth said all the right things, keeping it professional, his mind imagined what it would be like to have the witch pet him and connect their essences in order to recharge his magic.

“So, Cas-teel,” the witch said, reading the nametag wrong.

“Castiel,” Cas corrected.

“Cas,” the witch decided. “Which one would you take?”

“Freckles,” Cas said, which was coincidentally also what he had been thinking about.

“Excuse me?” the witch said, eyebrows shooting up, and Cas quickly motioned to the dog in question.

“He has such a sad—past,” he caught himself just in time before ‘aura’ could slip out. “He deserves all the happiness in the world.” Something to take away the sadness.

They continued talking, about how most people only wanted puppies and about how hard it was to find volunteers to walk or play with the animals. Then the conversation somehow moved away from animals and to family because the witch (“Call me Dean.”) was trying to find a good fit for his brother.

When Dean laughed at something Cas said (even though he hadn’t intended it as a joke), the corners of his eyes crinkled and his aura pulsated in rhythm with his laughter.

Maybe the fact that all of Cas’ familiars had already been assigned witches to help wasn’t a problem after all. Cas’ familiar could take care of one witch.

“Hey man, you okay?” Dean asked. “You keep looking past me.” He looked behind himself, searching for what it was Cas had looked at.

When he didn’t see anything, he turned back around, eyebrows raised.

“No… I mean yes… I… Sorry,” Cas babbled.

He felt himself turn red. It wasn’t polite to stare at someone’s aura. But he kind of had the feeling that Dean hadn’t even picked up on the fact that he was a familiar. It was a lot harder for witches to recognize familiars than the other way around because there was no magical residue for them to pick up on.

That was fine by Cas. Rule number one when helping a witch was never to show them your human form. If all they ever saw was the animal, they had no way of tracking them down and if the witches didn’t know who the familiars were in human form, that just offered more safety for their whole operation. Plausible deniability. _“No, there are no familiars here, officer.”_

After the witch had chosen a dog (Freckles, Cas was happy to note) and filled out the paperwork, Cas peeked over to see that luckily, he didn’t live far away.

“Moved here recently?” he asked.

“Yes. How did you know?”

Cas shrugged his shoulders. “Small town.”

“Well, maybe we’ll run into each other again,” Dean said, doing something weird with his eyebrows and tone of voice.

“I’m sure we will,” Cas said.

He had off tomorrow after six. Dean needed a familiar’s help and what better day than Halloween to give it to him?


	2. Chapter 2

Cas couldn’t wait for the day to be over. He had never felt as impatient to transform into his familiar form before. Usually, he was fine to stay in his human form for weeks or even months on end. But ever since he had met Dean, his cat had wanted to come out and butt his head against Dean’s legs. It was like an itch Cas couldn’t scratch. Only Dean would be able to do that.

Finally, it was time. He closed up, looked around to make sure there was no one around and transformed. Then he had to stretch to get comfortable in his new skin before he went on his way. His cat’s sense of direction wasn’t the best, but he had looked up the way to Dean’s place and was pretty sure he knew how to get there. This witch was in for a surprise!

Once he arrived at Dean’s house, he lay in wait, trying to figure out a way inside. It wasn’t like he could just ring the bell.

Luckily, there were trick-or-treaters in the street, and it wasn’t long before a bunch of kids in costumes stopped by Dean’s door.

When the witch opened and gave out candy, Cas quickly darted inside. Dean was too busy getting rid of the kids to even realize it.

Most witches had a room where they conducted their witchy business, so Cas used the time to look around the house, trying to find the room reserved for all things related to magic. But Cas couldn’t find it.

There were two doors that were closed, which he couldn’t get in to explore. Apart from them, he found the kitchen with a sink full of dishes (no cauldrons, though), and the living room, which looked normal enough.

What kind of witch was this? No witch books, no cauldrons, no lab… The house didn’t even feel like magic. He would think he had the wrong house, but that had definitely been Dean he had whizzed past.

Deciding to wait for Dean on his couch, Cas hopped up just as the witch came into the living room—and stopped short.

“Where did you come from?” he asked.

“Meow,” was all Cas could say to that. He stared at Dean intently in order to clue him in to the fact that he was a familiar here to help with the witchy problem Dean had to have. After all, the magical pull had brought him to the animal shelter just yesterday.

“And why are you looking at me weird?” Dean continued and then took a few steps closer until he was standing above Cas, scooping him up into his arms.

Here it came, Cas would finally get the petting his cat had longed for all day.

But Dean just carried him back to the door, mumbling, “Must have been with those kids.”

Then he opened the door and promptly put him outside before shutting the door in his face.

Really?! Cas just sat there for a moment, taken aback.

Granted, he didn’t work with witches a lot, but usually, they got the idea pretty quickly when a strange animal showed up at their place.

Cas had to wait for about fifteen minutes before a new group of children rang Dean’s doorbell.

This time, Dean saw him run in and yelled, “Hey!” but Cas had already made it inside.

Dean joined him back in the living room shortly after.

“Okay, seriously, what _is_ it with you? Do I have some catnip lying around?” Dean looked around as if he actually expected to find the reason Cas was here lying around on his living room floor.

Cas tilted his head, trying to figure out what this witch’s problem was. Here he was—a familiar at his service, free of charge, and Dean didn’t seem inclined to take advantage of that.

The witch shook his head. “You’re a weird cat.”

Then he came towards him again, but Cas wouldn’t get thrown out of the house twice. He quickly jumped off the couch and ran to hide behind it.

“Aw, man, c’mon. Don’t be like that,” Dean groaned and then proceeded to chase Cas around the house, which was fun, but also a bit counter-productive. At this point, they should be getting acquainted with each other’s essences, familiarizing themselves with each other.

Instead, Dean changed tactics and opened a can of something or other, obviously trying to use bait to lure him out of the house.

Yes, this settled it: Dean thought he was a regular cat who could be distracted by—hey, was that tuna?

“Do you _want_ me to call Animal Control?” Dean finally asked after they’d been at it for a while longer. “Or is it Wildlife Removal?” he then pondered out loud. “Are you a feral cat or something?” He looked Cas up and down. “No collar… No family who misses you?”

Since this didn’t seem to get them anywhere and Dean didn’t seem in the mood to do any spells or the like, Cas decided to give up for now before Dean actually did call someone and he ended up in an animal shelter himself.

He would ask his friends who had more experience helping witches for advice and come back with a better plan tomorrow.

Decision made, he went to the front door, looked over his shoulder at Dean and meowed at him until he opened the door and Cas could make his way home.

⁂

“Have you ever had a witch who didn’t get that you were a familiar?” Cas asked Hannah the next morning while they were feeding the dogs. “You know, who thought that you were a normal pet? Or maybe a stray?”

“No. But I do not believe people think of ravens as ‘pets.’”

Yes, there was that. Cas’ familiar form was rather boring. No wolf or eagle, just a regular house cat.

“But I think witches are supposed to know instinctively what to do,” Hannah continued. “Even if they never had a familiar’s help before.”

“Dean certainly didn’t seem to know what to do with me,” Cas grumbled.

That was just his luck. Only the witch Cas had assigned himself to didn’t catch a clue. Maybe the fact that Cas could hardly feel his magic had something to do with it. If there was only a trace left, it stood to reason that Dean’s witchy instincts wouldn’t function the way they were supposed to.

“Maybe I should wear a witch’s hat next time,” Cas mused. “Doesn’t Rowena have this cat-sized one?”

At that moment, Samandriel came in and told them that a new volunteer had arrived who was waiting for Cas to tell him what to do.

Samandriel took over for him so that Cas could go to the front desk.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the new volunteer. “Dean!”

“Heya.” Dean gave him a little wave and one of his megawatt smiles. “I thought about what you said the other day, that you could use some help, and I have some free time before work so I thought, why not do something productive with it?”

Poor Dean. If the magic pull was so strong that he was back so soon, it meant he was in _desperate_ need of help. Help Cas should have provided yesterday if only he had done a better job as his familiar. Well, not _his_ familiar, but the familiar who was supposed to help him.

“Right. That’s… that’s very nice of you.”

“Yeah, I’m a nice kinda guy.” Again with the smile that Cas started to suspect might be imbued with magic because for some reason it made him feel warm and tingly. “So, what can I do to help?”

The better question was what _Cas_ could do to help. But maybe if Dean stopped by more often and Cas got to interact with him in his human form, he could figure out a way to get him to accept his familiar’s help.


	3. Chapter 3

Usually, Samandriel and Hannah would walk the dogs in the morning, but the good thing about being the boss was that Cas could tell them to switch with him today so that he got to go for a walk with Dean. (And the dogs, of course.)

He shot Hannah a dark look since she had an all too knowing smile on her face when Cas informed her about the change of plans.

“So… you are Dean?” she asked while Cas was handing Dean a leash for Fruitloops. Apparently, she hadn’t seen his warning look or just chose to ignore it.

“Uhm… yes?”

Cas wished he hadn’t told Hannah anything. Now it sounded like he had mentioned him to Hannah. Which, admittedly, he had, but Dean wasn’t supposed to know that.

“Don’t you have work to do?” he groused, trying the dark look one more time.

“Not since you took over dog-walking duties.”

“You can start by cleaning the cages of the rabbits.”

Dean seemed amused by all of this while Cas tried to come up with an excuse for why he would have mentioned Dean to his coworkers.

“Freckles,” he blurted out, which gave him a sense of déjà vu. He cleared his throat and explained, “Hannah had asked about Freckles and that’s when I told her about you. I only mentioned it in passing really.”

The words had just been out of his mouth when Cas realized that he was digging himself in further. He should have just ignored the whole thing. He was so not good at coming up with excuses—he tended to blush and stumble over his words and everyone could immediately tell when he wasn’t being truthful.

“She’s just really curious about handsome strangers.” Seriously—he should stop talking.

Dean’s aura took on an amused tint, almost mischievous, which was how Cas knew he was about to be teased mercilessly for that slip-up.

“Handsome, huh?” Dean asked. “So, what did you tell her about the ‘handsome stranger’?”

“Nothing!” Well, apart from the fact that he didn’t recognize a familiar when he was standing right in front of him. “It’s not like I know anything about you I could have told her.” There. That was… close to the truth.

“Well Cas—all you had to do was ask.” That statement was accompanied by one of his smiles that made his aura wobble delightfully.

In order to change the fact that they didn’t know anything about each other, Dean suggested a game of twenty questions where they would take turns asking and answering.

Cas chose boring questions about a typical day in his week or his interests…

Of course, Dean didn’t talk about anything to do with witchcraft. Witches tended to keep their nature to themselves much like familiars did, so it wasn’t like Cas had expected him to confide in some stranger.

Apparently, Dean liked to catch him off guard because when Cas answered that he didn’t have a girlfriend at the moment, Dean didn’t miss a beat before following up with, “Boyfriend?”

It took Cas a second to regain his composure. Then he said, “That’s technically two questions.” After a beat of silence, he added, “But no.”

Dean raised his eyebrows and said, “Good to know.”

It sounded as if he was teasing him again, but before Cas could put his foot in his mouth—which he seemed to be doing a lot around Dean—they arrived back at the shelter.

When Cas confided in him that this was the part he hated, leaving the animals all alone to go take care of paperwork, Dean looked at him with a fond smile on his face and then said, “You have a big heart.”

“Oh… well… I don’t know about that… it’s probably normal-sized,” Cas mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

For some reason, that made Dean smile even brighter, but then he had to leave for work and Cas thanked him for his time and watched him leave.

“Whoa there, smitten kitten,” said Charlie, who had snuck up on him. “That the oblivious witch you’re making heart eyes at?”

Cas rolled his eyes. “This place likes gossip way too much!”

⁂

His second attempt at helping Dean that same evening did not get off to a good start.

Dean had already been home when he arrived at his house and this time, there were no trick-or-treaters who could help him get in, so Cas circled around the house, trying to find a way inside.

He finally found one in form of a tilted window.

Unfortunately, he got stuck on his way in and had to struggle to free himself, which resulted in him getting catapulted into a pie on the kitchen counter when he finally did manage to free himself.

He was just licking himself in an attempt to clean himself when Dean came in and caught him not exactly at his best.

“What the hell? How’d you get in here again?” Then his eyes landed on the pie and he added, “Dude! Did you ruin my pie?!”

Cas just hoped it was a normal pie and not the kind that would turn him into some other kind of species. He realized that he had no idea what kind of pie witches baked these days. He had been out of the game way too long.

What he _should_ be doing was try to get Dean into a witchy mood, but here he was, crumbs all over his fur, which made him feel like he needed to turn back into his human form and take a shower right now.

Dean meanwhile sighed. “Okay, let’s get you cleaned up, huh?” he said, scooped Cas up and put him in the sink.

Oh no! Cas did not like where this was going! He tried to scramble out of it, but Dean held him back with a firm hand.

Luckily, he just started picking crumbs out of his fur. Not exactly the petting Cas had hoped for, but it was a start.

“Did your previous owners live here?” Dean asked while he was working on getting him clean. “Did they forget about you?”

It was kind of adorable the way he was talking to him as if he could talk back. People who treated animals right were good people. Not that there had been any doubt. Dean’s aura had told him that already the first time they had met.

“Okay, there we go, good as new.” He was about to pick Cas up again, but Cas saw where this was going and quickly jumped down on the floor.

“Yeah, I’m not playing that game again,” Dean decided and promptly left the kitchen.

Curiosity piqued despite himself (some animal instincts were just hard to shake while in this form), Cas followed him to the living room, where Dean was opening the large sliding glass door leading to the patio. He looked at Cas with raised eyebrows, but when Cas didn’t leave through the door, he just went over to the couch, sat down and turned on the TV.

Cas would count this as progress. Sure, the invitation to leave his house was clear, but at least, Dean wasn’t chasing him around the house like last time _and_ wasn’t threatening him with Animal Control.

Now, on to the advice Charlie had given him: bond with the witch. Not ‘bond’ bond, of course, but in the same way humans and animals tended to bond. Find some common ground and get a rapport going. As soon as witch and familiar felt comfortable with each other, the whole magical thing would click into place automatically.

Watching TV together seemed like a good start. So, Cas walked over and jumped onto Dean’s lap before lying down there.

“Yeah, sure. Just get comfortable, why don’t you?”

Cas looks up at him, head tilted. That’s what he was just doing.

“You’re gonna make me sneeze, aren’tcha?”

Sneeze? Why would he— Oh.

Great, he _would_ get the witch who was allergic to him! Wait—could witches even _be_ allergic to familiars? That didn’t make a lot of sense.

After a while, Dean’s aura calmed down, all quiet content tranquility, and he started petting Cas seemingly without being aware of it.

This felt nice, strong hands stroking over his back, and Cas leaned into it, butting Dean’s hand with his head whenever he paused for longer than a second. Dean’s lap might be Cas’ new favorite place to be.

Cat instincts taking over, he began purring, and then quickly stopped when he realized what he was doing, a bit embarrassed. He wasn’t a _cat_. Well, not really.

That’s when he realized that Charlie had been right. Now that they were comfortable in each other’s presence, they sort of… synced.

He could basically feel the magic building with each stroke of Dean’s hands over his fur. Usually, the witch would have to focus that building energy on whatever spell or witchy purpose he needed it for, but Dean didn’t even seem aware of what was happening. He just kept watching what was going on on screen, absent-mindedly petting Cas.

Cas tried to get Dean’s attention by meowing because they had brought that flicker of magic to the surface together and now it had to go somewhere—Dean couldn’t just ignore it!

“Hey, what’s up, little buddy?” Dean asked, but it was already too late.

Cas felt the crackle of static in the air and the next second, the magic found its own outlet and the light bulbs in the room exploded, sparks flying every which way, raining shards of glass onto them.

“Whoa!” Dean shielded them from the shards with his arms and then it was all over, as quickly as it had started, the magic dissipated.

The TV had been turned off as well and it was dark and silent.

Even Dean’s aura had turned a dark shade of confusion and apprehension.

Cas wasn’t proud of what he did next, but he fled, out the sliding glass door and he didn’t stop running until he arrived home.


	4. Chapter 4

Charlie picked up after the first ring.

 _“How was the second date—sorry, I mean day?”_ she asked without waiting for a greeting.

Ignoring the teasing part of her question, Cas replied, “I almost killed my witch.”

_“You—what?!”_

After he had explained what had transpired, there was a muffling sound on the other end of the line and it took Cas a while to figure out that she was laughing.

“This isn’t funny. I really could have gotten him injured.”

 _“Oh, chill out. A few exploding light bulbs won’t hurt a witch.”_ The eye-roll was evident in her voice. _“Plus, it takes two to tango—or make sparks fly as it were. Maybe he should feel guilty for just letting the magic build up without providing an outlet?”_

“That’s just it. He was really surprised. I’m not sure he was aware of what was going on.”

The more Cas thought about it, the more evident it became. He had one clueless witch on his hands here.

 _“What—you think his magic only now started manifesting?”_ Charlie asked, disbelieving.

It _was_ rather hard to believe. How did a witch get to his late thirties without accidentally triggering his magic? Most witches first used their powers during their early childhood.

“I don’t know,” Cas said. “But what should I do if he doesn’t even _know_ about familiars?”

Up until the light bulb incident, Cas had thought all he had to do was make Dean aware of the fact that he was no ordinary cat. But if he didn’t even know familiars existed, that would prove difficult.

 _“He said he’d come back to the shelter, right?”_ Charlie said. _“So, at least that means you can talk to him using, you know, real words instead of cat talk.”_

While Charlie was right about that, it wasn’t that big of an advantage. After all, it wasn’t like Cas could just start talking about familiars out of the blue without arousing suspicion.

The fact that Cas was regularly lost for words when confronted with Dean didn’t help.

His suspicions were confirmed the next morning when Dean told him that he’d had an issue with ‘faulty wiring.’

Granted, it could just be a lie so that he wouldn’t have to admit his magic had caused the problem—but that didn’t make any sense because he didn’t even have to mention it in the first place.

So, Cas just went along with that story, smiling at Dean and then letting the smile slip off his face when he realized that ‘faulty wiring’ wasn’t such a great reason to smile. It was just very difficult to keep the smile off his face when he was with Dean.

There was something weird and intriguing—weirdly intriguing—about him. Luckily, Cas liked weird.

⁂

There was something weird about Apple Pie. That’s what he had named the cat that just kept coming back.

After a few days, Dean had just given up and gotten into the habit of leaving a window or the glass door to his patio open on purpose. It seemed like he had sort of a cat now. One that only came by in the evenings, like clockwork, as if it were waiting for six o’clock to come around.

The most curious thing about it all was that whenever Pie was around, weird shit was going down. There was the incident that had started it all with the light bulbs.

Dean had thought that it had scared Pie away because he had never seen a cat run that fast. But the next day, he was back, a bit timid and cautious, but Dean had been relieved anyway—which had surprised him because he didn’t even _like_ cats.

Okay, that was mostly due to his allergies, but he seemed to have gotten over them because Pie hadn’t once made him sneeze even when he kept petting him and cuddling with him.

In any case, ever since that first incident, more strange things had happened. Books falling out of bookshelves or windows slamming shut of their own accord…

And every time there was a weird energy around them that Dean couldn’t quite explain. It was like a tension that would eventually snap.

He’d think he was going mad, but then it started happening when Pie wasn’t around, so the paranoid theory of the black cat bringing bad luck went out the window (along with those fridge magnets which just flew right out as if they’d had enough of being stuck to the fridge).

Luckily, he could forget all the weird things going on when he was at the animal shelter with Cas.

At first, it had been fun watching him blush and start babbling anytime Dean said something flirty. But the more time he spent with Cas, the more he wished he’d flirt back because he realized that he kind of liked him a lot.

Never before had he met anyone this kind-hearted, who was funny and sweet and—well, very easy on the eyes.

“So, I was wondering,” he said when they were about to say goodbye one morning after walking the dogs. “Since you know a lot more about pets—would you be willing to go to a pet shop with me and buy some things for a cat?”

Cas blinked at him. “A cat?” he repeated.

“Yeah. I’ve told you about Pie, right? Well, I thought if he’s hanging around my place all the time, maybe I should make sure he… y’know, feels comfortable and stuff.”

Even though that comment hadn’t been flirty at all, Cas blushed again.

“You know,” Dean went on to explain, “Some cat toys, maybe a litter box, those kinds of things.”

When Cas was still looking at him wide-eyed, he quickly said, “You don’t have to come, of course. I’m sure I can just google what I need…”

“No… I mean, yes. I’ll come,” Cas said. “I was just surprised. I don’t think you really need any of that.”

Huh. Cas was usually all for making animals feel comfortable. This was a rather strange reaction.

“I mean, he’s probably not going to stick around forever,” Cas continued. “Strays are like that. They come and go…”

“Yeah, well, Pie is coming more often than he’s going, so…”

He had accidentally adopted that cat and now, he really didn’t want to think about Pie suddenly not showing up anymore.

“If you really want to do that, I’d be happy to help you,” Cas said.

Ha! Seemed like Dean had gotten himself a first date with Cas. Well, it wasn’t really a _date_ , of course, but they would meet up somewhere that wasn’t the animal shelter for the first time.

⁂

Cas had had a lousy day. A dog had been brought in that had been malnourished, just left at the side of the road, and Cas had been trying to get him to perk up all day, to not give up on life.

He hated people who did this to defenseless animals, and he was always taking it hard because he liked to believe in the good in people.

Being a familiar, he wasn’t able to perform spells by himself, but that hadn’t kept him from trying to conjure up some healing magic.

Not only had it not worked, but it had left Cas completely drained. He had almost passed on going to Dean’s, but the witch had been so happy to have those new toys and Cas remembered how his aura had looked all glum at the idea that ‘Pie’ might not come back.

It would really be a problem if he should ever figure out how to help Dean—because once he’d achieve that goal, he’d have to say goodbye to Dean in his cat form. He couldn’t just keep coming back to a witch once he wasn’t in need of help anymore. And who knew if Dean would come back to the shelter once the magic pull wasn’t luring him back.

As a matter of fact, Dean’s magic—though still without outlet because he kept ignoring the build-up—was getting stronger, so Cas assumed that he was helping in a way.

When Cas arrived, he humored Dean by playing with him. When the witch dragged the toy mouse on the floor, Cas followed and pounced on it, which made Dean smile. (Well, it _was_ kind of fun, playing around with Dean, so it might not only be to humor him.)

He actually started to feel better after the awful day he’d had, but he got really tired when they got comfy on the bed and he curled up on Dean’s chest while the witch was reading some book.

This was the most comfortable place ever, probably because Dean’s scent was all around them. Combine that with Dean’s hand that wasn’t holding the book stroking him, and he didn’t even care when cat instincts made him purr again.

⁂

He was woken up by Dean murmuring in his sleep, although he couldn’t make out what he was saying. That’s when he realized that it was the middle of the night and he was still at Dean’s. Falling asleep was not on his list of things he was allowed to do while taking care of a witch charge.

Luckily, he hadn’t shifted back in his sleep. His presence in Dean’s house (much less his bed) would have been hard to explain.

Still, it was high time for him to leave. He wanted to jump off Dean when he saw that they were floating a few feet above the bed.

This witch was all over the place! Why were they levitating?!

Good thing that as a cat, Cas wasn’t afraid to just jump down, so that’s what he did, landing on his feet next to the bed.

The second they weren’t in contact anymore, the magic started dissipating, letting Dean float back down onto the bed, where he put his arms around the pillow and turned around, continuing to sleep none the wiser.

Cas was looking up at him, perplexed. That had been some powerful magic, especially since he hadn’t even been conscious while doing it. Not all witches were even capable of levitation.

Ever since that first spark of magic, he had been getting more powerful vibes off Dean. Apparently, he had gotten in over his head here.

He probably shouldn’t just stand here and watch his witch sleep, so he quickly turned around to head back home.


	5. Chapter 5

_Did you watch that documentary about Familiars?_

No. In that case, he should make sure first that there actually _had_ been a documentary on about Familiars.

_I read some interesting facts about Familiars…_

Well, that was probably too obvious.

“You’re quiet today.”

Dean’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. They were walking the dogs again—something they did every day now.

“What? Quiet? Oh. Yes. I’m… thinking. Just thinking.”

“About anything in particular?” Dean asked, genuinely curious.

“We found a home for Fruitloops. Nice people. They’re going to make a good family for him.”

The small smile on Dean’s face told him that he might see right through him and know that that’s not what he’d been thinking about.

They lapsed into silence and continued walking next to each other, so close that their hands that didn’t hold the leashes brushed against each other by accident.

Even though Dean had clearly not meant to take his hand or even touch it, the touch sent sparks of excitement through him and he made sure that he kept walking close to Dean.

The next time their hands brushed against each other, he lingered there, their pinkies keeping in contact for a moment longer.

The next second, rainbow-colored mini fireworks were going off around them.

Twinkles and Buddy didn’t seem to like that and they started barking at them.

Dean’s hand was gone in an instant.

The fireworks had stopped and Cas could simply pretend he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Or he could take this opportunity and finally confront Dean with what was going on.

Heart in his throat, Cas tried to look and sound casual as he said, “I knew a witch once who that happened to all the time.”

That wasn’t quite true. There had been that witch who had come to the shelter once whose powers had been close to chaotic. It hadn’t really been something that had happened to her all the time, but it _had_ happened once. Only it hadn’t been fireworks, but confetti. So, maybe not so similar after all.

“You’re a witch?” Dean asked, intrigued. Nonjudgmental at least, but still… Cas had never heard of such an oblivious witch before and he just wanted to bury his head in his hands.

Instead, he replied slowly, “No,” shooting Dean a meaningful look.

Finally, it seemed to click. “What— _I’m_ not a witch!” Dean denied, huffing out a small laugh as if that were a ridiculous assumption to make.

“I’m not saying that you are,” Cas backpedalled, even though that was what he was saying. “Just… if you _were_ , that would be fine.”

After a moment of contemplation, Dean suggested, “Maybe a witch cursed me. Would explain all the strange things that have been going on lately.”

Seriously. Banging his head against an available surface sounded like a good idea.

“Yes. That makes a lot of sense,” Cas replied and he didn’t even know whether he hoped Dean would pick up on the sarcasm.

⁂

Dean hadn’t even considered that there might be witch magic involved. Weren’t witches, like, super rare these days? He decided to push thoughts about that away for the time being because he was actually on a mission.

He had wanted to invite Cas over for a while now and he had finally found the perfect excuse: Pie. Cas _loved_ animals and Dean could probably use that to his advantage.

They were on their way back to the shelter, so he should better man up.

Only, when he asked Cas to come over that night so that he could meet Pie, he stopped short.

“Uhm… well, I… I’m actually not a cat person,” he said, which was clearly a lie.

Dean had seen him cuddle with kittens and talk to the cats in the shelter with love in his eyes on more than one occasion. Which meant that this was Cas’ way of letting Dean down easy.

Maybe his gaydar was on the fritz. He was sure he had gotten Cas all flustered with a charming smile or a raised eyebrow and he _knew_ he had felt something when he had brushed against Cas’ hand with his before.

Of course, the moment had been ruined by frigging _fireworks_ , which… yeah. Witch magic sounded like the only plausible explanation there. Cockblocking witch fireworks—whoever had heard of that?

“Yeah, no problem,” he said, trying to hide his disappointment.

⁂

Dean sounded and behaved completely normal, but his aura looked so sad that Cas quickly tried to sell his lie by explaining, “I mean, I’m constantly surrounded by cats here at the shelter, you know…”

“Cas—it’s okay.”

Only, it wasn’t okay. His aura basically screamed at Cas that it wasn’t okay.

So, Cas blurted out part of the truth, “I sent him to you.”

Dean blinked at him.

Cas blinked back.

“Come again?”

This was exactly what he shouldn’t be talking about out loud. Cas looked around, but they were in the middle of a field, alone save for the dogs. Still, he leaned in before he repeated, “I sent Pie to you.” He lowered his voice even further when he went on, “We’re helping witches and familiars meet. And you seemed to need help, so…” He trailed off, letting Dean fill in the blanks.

“You’re serious,” Dean said after a beat of silence. “Okay, wow. First off, I’m not a witch. And isn’t that illegal?”

For a brief second, Cas’ familiar just wanted to flee. But he knew Dean. He could see his aura, which, yeah, was a bit unnerved right now, but it was still one of the most beautiful ones Cas had ever seen. He trusted Dean not to rat them out.

Before he could respond to that, Dean already continued, “It doesn’t matter anyway because I don’t need any help.”

“Of course you do. That’s why you keep coming back here.”

Dean’s eyebrows shot up. That was probably a lot to take in for a witch who hadn’t even known he was a witch up till now. Who hadn’t known he was in need of a familiar to help him with his witch problems he was unaware of.

“No, it’s not.”

Still in denial then.

“You might not realize it…” Cas started, but was interrupted by Dean.

“That’s not why I keep coming back here.”

He seemed so sure of it that instead of convincing Dean that he was wrong, Cas settled on saying, “Sure, all right. But maybe you should let Pie help you.”

“That’s not his real name, is it?” Dean said. “If he’s a familiar.”

There was really nothing Cas could say to that, so he stayed quiet.

After a moment of silence, Dean asked, “So, what _is_ his name?”

Cas lowered his eyes. “We can’t give out that information.”

“Why not?”

Witches were always so curious. Wasn’t it enough to know that this was how things were done?

Still, Cas tried to explain, “You’re not supposed to… form a real bond. He’s just supposed to help you and then that’s it.” When that didn’t seem to satisfy Dean as an answer, Cas added, “It’s meant to protect both witches _and_ familiars. And our whole organization. Which reminds me, you can’t tell anyone.”

Of course, Dean promised not to say a word to anyone. He seemed deep in thought for the rest of their round, though, and his aura had turned difficult to read, so Cas didn’t dare ask what was going through his head.

He just hoped he hadn’t scared Dean off. Maybe Pie could find out what was on his mind later today…


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Dean did after he came home was make a list of all the people he had pissed off recently, trying to figure out if one of them might be a witch.

Cas had been on to something: there might be a curse on him.

When that led him nowhere (he was a nice guy—there weren’t really all that many people he’d pissed off), he decided to give Sam a call. If he remembered correctly, he knew a witch. Maybe she could figure out if he really had been cursed and if so, how to lift the curse.

Sam helped him get in contact with his witch friend, but apparently, remote diagnosis wasn’t an option for witches, which was why Rowena promptly invited herself over. As soon as he’d given her the address, she just popped into his house out of nowhere.

Dean let himself be poked and prodded to Rowena’s ‘Hmmm’s and ‘Ah’s and finally, the witch declared, “Yes, there is a power-binding curse on you.”

Ha! He knew it! Wait…

“A what?”

“A power-binding curse,” Rowena repeated more slowly. “But not to worry, it seems to have been counteracted already. Although if I were you, I would keep the fact that you’re a witch secret. The government likes to keep tabs on powerful witches.”

It turned out that Cas had been right about a lot of things…

⁂

For the first time since Cas had started coming by Dean’s house in his cat form, Dean hadn’t left the sliding glass door open for him.

Cas had known that he shouldn’t have said anything to him. Now he had freaked Dean out and the witch clearly didn’t want him in his house any longer.

Respecting Dean’s decision even if it was rather hurtful, he went home, trying and failing to concentrate on something else. Maybe he just wasn’t the right familiar for Dean. Maybe he should send someone else to help the witch…

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone.

Dean!

At least he wasn’t rejecting Cas in his human form. Even though Cas would prefer Dean to accept both him _and_ his familiar. But maybe that was too greedy on his part.

_“Hey Cas. I was kinda busy this evening and forgot to let Pie in. Could you send him by?”_

Cas’ bad mood was gone in an instant. Dean hadn’t rejected his familiar—he’d wanted him to come by as a matter of fact.

“Yes, I’ll be… I mean, I’ll send him right over.”

_“Cool. Uhm… by the way. You were right. So, thanks for hooking me up with Pie. I was told that that’s a big deal and not everyone is as lucky as me.”_

Cas could just imagine Dean blushing slightly as he said that and he smiled affectionately. “You’re very welcome. See you… tomorrow.”

He had just caught himself in time before he could have said ‘See you later.’ His subconscious really wanted to make Dean aware of the fact that Pie and him were the same person. Cat. Cat-person. But he really shouldn’t.

So, he said goodbye to Dean on the phone and made his way to his place for the second time that night.

⁂

Finding out he was a witch at his age was strange to say the least and he would definitely have to look into who had put that power-binding curse on him that had kept his magic at bay all these years.

But Dean was used to rolling with the punches, and being able to summon a beer from the fridge without getting up did sound like it could come in handy, so it wasn’t like it was unwelcome news, if a bit overwhelming.

Rowena hadn’t had a clue as to what might have broken the curse, but Dean had an inkling. Of course, he hadn’t mentioned Pie since he had promised Cas he wouldn’t. He was pretty sure that the familiar had had something to do with his powers being set free. After all, it had all started when Pie had first come around.

Speaking of… Something else that was weird: Having Pie jump up on his lap, now that he knew that he wasn’t just a cat. But if he was right about his suspicion, then maybe it wasn’t so weird after all.

He was sitting on his couch, the book Rowena had lent him about how to channel magic on the table in front of him, and now with a familiar in his lap who was currently butting his head against Dean’s chest. Since he knew what that meant by now, Dean began petting him, waiting for him to start purring the way he did when he felt completely comfortable with Dean.

“Okay, so,” he said after a while. “I’m new to this, so no judgment, alright?”

With that statement, he closed his eyes and concentrated on that magic flicker Rowena had described. According to the book, contact with the familiar helped, so Dean made sure he kept his hand on Pie’s fur.

He could feel the energy sizzling between them, and when he opened his eyes and pointed at the book in front of him, it floated a couple of inches up before dropping back down.

“Did you see that?” he asked Pie because that was so cool! “I did it!” Pie looked at him and meowed, so Dean quickly corrected himself, “Sorry, _we_ did it.”

This opened up so many new possibilities! With a bit of practice, his magic could make his life so much easier…

They experimented around a bit more until they were interrupted by Dean’s cell phone with a text message from Sam. Oops. He probably should have called him back after Rowena had left.

By the time he had texted him back, Pie had decided that this was enough witch training for tonight and had taken off.

⁂

The next morning, Dean didn’t come to the animal shelter. Cas waited for a long time before he couldn’t let the dogs wait anymore and he walked them by himself. Later, he saw that Dean had texted that he couldn’t make it.

It was a Saturday. There was no reason why Dean wouldn’t be able to make it other than the fact that his magic didn’t make him want to come here anymore.

Cas should be happy. That’s what his mission had been from the moment Dean had walked into the animal shelter. He had finally managed to help his witch.

Now that Dean had figured out how to do magic, he didn’t need him anymore, and thus the magic pull didn’t make him come back to the shelter anymore. That was supposed to be a win. Only, it didn’t feel like one. Somehow, it felt like Cas had lost something.

And not only Cas, but ‘Pie’ too. He hadn’t had so much fun in his cat form in a long time and now, all of a sudden, he couldn’t go back to Dean to play with the witch anymore.

Trying to get his mind off Dean, he wandered around outside in his cat form for a while. When he came back, he saw that Dean had tried to reach him. His heart made a hopeful leap in his chest, but Cas quickly squashed it down and turned his cell phone off.

⁂

The next morning, Cas was still feeling sorry for himself. That’s why he retreated into his office in an attempt to keep his nosy friends from asking about why his aura had turned sad.

Unfortunately, even though he was hardly ever in his office, people still found him there too.

“Hey boss.” Charlie popped her head round the door into his office. “Your boyfriend’s here.”

Before Cas could ask what she meant by that, she had disappeared and Dean was standing in the doorway, shuffling his feet.

“Dean!” Cas quickly got up from his desk and walked over to him. “What are you doing here?” Did he have witch problems _again_? Or had Cas’ familiar not fulfilled his duties after all?

“You didn’t come by yesterday,” Dean said, more of a question than an accusation.

“Well, I thought you didn’t need help anymore,” Cas said before he realized he was walking right into a trap. He quickly added, a bit lamely, “Which is why I didn’t send Pie.”

“Yeah. Right,” Dean said, his tone of voice making it clear that Cas hadn’t managed to lie his way out of that trap. “Anyway, sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday. My brother made this huge deal out of this whole… thing, and came by unannounced… But I learned a new trick. Look!”

He opened his hand and held it out. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a soft glow appeared above his hand and a flower grew out of the light. When it had faded, the flower was still there and Dean took it.

“Neat, huh?” Dean asked and held it out for Cas, who took it, a bit dumbfounded. “I mean I’m still learning. I can get you something better with more practice.”

“Dean—what are you doing here?” Cas repeated because his aura had taken on that strange tint again that Cas couldn’t quite read. “Do you need help? Do I need to send… someone to you?”

“I told you that wasn’t why I came here,” Dean said, a slight bit of aggravation mixing in with the myriad of other emotions his aura was radiating. “I made you a flower. How much more obvious should I get here?”

Cas blinked at him. “I… I don’t…”

“I’m trying to ask you out,” Dean clarified. “Wanna come by tonight?”

Witches and familiars weren’t supposed to date, since it might lead them to bond. But he had already broken some rules. Plus, a strange sort of bond had already started forming between them anyway.

So, Cas let his inner happiness show with a wide smile. “I would love that.” And since Dean already knew it anyway, but he felt he had to acknowledge it in some way, he added, “Maybe we can practice some more together. I really enjoyed that the other day.”

The wide-eyed look on Dean’s face told him that he had caught him off guard with that admission. Maybe Dean hadn’t been a hundred percent sure about Pie’s identity after all. But that was okay. He wouldn’t want to start anything with secrets between them anyway.

Dating a witch might seem a bit daunting. But dating Dean? He simply couldn’t wait for tonight!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who commented—you have no idea how much I appreciate you! ❤️
> 
> And if you want to support me another way, reblogging the link on tumblr would be awesome. **[Here's the link to the tumblr post](https://destielshipper4cas.tumblr.com/post/619915564654231552/familiar-shelter-finished-rating-teen-and-up)**.


End file.
